We’ve published several blog posts over the past weeks emphasizing the role of women in marijuana law reform.

Why? Well, for starters, women are now voicing their support for sensible marijuana law reform in record numbers.

According to this week’s Gallup poll, support for marijuana legalization has jumped 12 percent among women since 2005. By comparison, support among men rose just four percent over this same time.

In short, if we are to succeed to pushing public support for marijuana regulation to majority levels in this country then we — unquestionably — need the greater support of women.

Fortunately, NORML has its own core group of female activists who are unabashedly speaking out publicly in favor of cannabis law reform. Their efforts are changing public opinion and garnering mainstream media attention.

Here are just a few recent examples.

Kathleen Parker: Legalizing Pot May Be Women’s Work

[Note: Kathleen Parker is a syndicated columnist. Her most recent commentary, spotlighting NORML-ally Jessica Corry, ran in newspapers across the country under various headlines.]

Today’s activist, more likely, doesn’t have facial hair, but she does have kids.

Lately to the smallish conservative crowd, notably once led by anti-prohibitionist William F. Buckley, is Jessica Corry of Colorado, a married, pro-life Republican mom, soon to be “freedom fighter of the month” in High Times magazine.

Recent partakers undoubtedly will have to rub their eyes for a double take when they spot Corry, who spoke last month at a NORML conference (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) in San Francisco, wearing an American flag lapel pin, a triple strand of pearls and a gold marijuana leaf pin.

Another day, another stereotype in the dust bin.

… Corry is hardly alone and, in fact, may be part of a “toking point.” (Is there a drug yet for “Tipping Point Fatigue”?) In its October issue, Marie Claire magazine featured “Stiletto Stoners” about accomplished career women who prefer to relax with pot. A September Fortune cover story, “Is Pot Already Legal?” examined the issue. In April, former (2006) Miss New Jersey, Georgine DiMaria, [Editor's Note: Georgine is an active member of NJ NORML.] outed herself as a stealth marijuana user to treat her asthma.

Next we have Salon.com:

Salon.com: Meet the marijuana moms

The real crux of Parker’s article, another idea she picks up from Corry, is the prediction that it will be women who lead the charge for legalization. It was the Women’s Organization for National Prohibition Reform, both point out, who in 1929 spearheaded the movement to get rid of the ban on alcohol. (Thanks, ladies!) Parker also cites a Marie Claire article on “Stiletto Stoners,” high-achieving women who smoke weed, and the recent revelation that Miss New Jersey 2006 uses medical marijuana to calm her asthma. I would add the example of Marie Myung-Ok Lee, a mother who wrote in Double X about feeding her autistic nine-year-old son pot (in cookie form).

And finally there’s this excellent commentary in the L.A. Daily News penned by NORML Legal Committee member Allison Margolin, who rightfully criticizes Los Angeles District Attorney for threatening to prosecute “100 percent” of the city’s medical marijuana dispensaries.

Pot crackdown flies in the face of law and sense

[excerpt] Whatever the perverse reasons motivating the district attorney’s position, the issue is not why but how to stop this alarming waste of resources. The media has focused on the fact that the amount of dispensaries in L.A. has mushroomed over the past year and on the ease with which marijuana users are obtaining recommendations. No one has focused on the fact that the war against dispensaries is another chapter in the escalation of the drug war, another excuse to send people to state prison, another mechanism to disenfranchise people whose medicine is not respected by law enforcement as legitimate.

This has to stop. In the wake of prison overcrowding and budget crisis, sending more people away and depriving the state of taxes they are currently reaping from dispensaries is not the answer.

This week, the LAPD is expected to crack down on medical marijuana dispensaries across Los Angeles. The time for action is now – before more people are caught up in the system, before more resources are wasted and before more lives are ruined.

Normal women, NORML women — fighting to end prohibition.

Last week Breckenridge Colorado joined the growing chorus of municipalities across America seeking to create a sensible cannabis policy (one, that in principle, is similar to that of alcohol in the recognition between acceptable, responsible adult use and abuse). Even though Colorado is already one of the 13 states that have decriminalized possession amounts of cannabis, following Denver’s lead, Breckenridge voters will soon be asked to make cannabis both a lowest law enforcement priority and the ‘penalty’ for possessing it– nothing. Nada. No fine, no criminal record.

A bright and enthusiastic lawyer with a young and growing family in Breckenridge is one of the chief advocates for this initiative, and in an ongoing ‘The Law and Marijuana‘ series of essays submitted by attorneys from the NORML Legal Committee to be exclusively published by the organization, Sean McAllister opines about why he thinks cannabis prohibition has lasted over 70 years.

-AStP

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By Sean T. McAllister, Esq., Member, NORML Legal Committee (Breckenridge, CO)

Marijuana remains illegal even though public attitudes are clearly changing on this topic. It is illegal even though 100 million Americans have smoked it and suffered little if any negative side effects. It is illegal even though 40% or more of Americans currently support legalization. It is illegal even though it is not physically addictive; you cannot overdose on marijuana; and the dependency rate of marijuana is lower than alcohol.

Marijuana remains illegal even though prohibition is incredibly expensive. The federal government spends at least $10 billion per year specifically on marijuana prohibition. Approximately 60,000 people are in prisons in America on marijuana violations only. If all 15-25 million Americans who smoke marijuana monthly were imprisoned, the country would spend $365 billion per year to incarcerate these people. Considering the country could reap approximately $6.2 billion per year if marijuana were taxed and regulated like alcohol, the war on marijuana easily costs somewhere in the neighborhood of $20 billion per year.

Marijuana remains illegal even though prohibition has miserably failed. After 35 years of a war on drugs largely targeting marijuana, the same number of high school students now say marijuana is easy to get and they had used it as answered those question in the affirmative in 1975. It remains illegal even though the Obama administration has declared an end to the “war on drugs,” while at the same time laughing off marijuana legalization.

Marijuana prohibition continues even though it empowers Mexican drug cartels. Approximately 60-70% of the profit of Mexican drug cartels comes from marijuana sales. If marijuana were taxed and regulated, this black market would virtually disappear, Mexican drug cartels would be much weaker, and our border would be much more secure.

Despite these facts, most politicians continue support marijuana prohibition. Commission after commission and newspaper editorial board after board may endorse marijuana legalization, but it continues to be ignored in state capitals. Grassroots activism does a great job keeping this issue in the press, but politicians continue to ignore it. Few politicians see it in their narrow interests of reelection to come out in favor of legalization of marijuana.

What follows is a brief analysis of some of the factors that continue to propagate the inertia of marijuana prohibition:

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